Override iTunes "media" keys (play, pause, etc) for Spotify?

Question

Is it possible to set Spotify as the default program when the "media" keys (play, pause, previous, next, etc) are pressed on the Mac keyboard?

For the most part when Spotify is open, the "media" keys work fine. But every once and a while iTunes will pop up when you hit them. It'd be a lot nicer if you could just specify that Spotify is the default program when these keys are triggered, as oppose to iTunes.

If it matters, I'm using Mountain Lion.

Answer 1

The software Mac Media Key Forwarder provides a user-friendly approach to prioritizing Spotify for your media keys. It runs in the background and gives you a few simple settings in the Mac menu bar. It just works.

Download and installation

It can be downloaded and installed directly from GitHub, or by using e.g. Homebrew:

brew install macmediakeyforwarder

Notes

• It is compatible with macOS Ventura.
• Ensure the application is given sufficient privileges in Security & Privacy in the System Preferences.
• I am not affiliated with the developer(s), I am just a satisfied user.

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Update 2023-08-28 - Use Mac Media Key Forwarder as the alternative app Beardedspice is no longer being updated

As there are reports of Beardedspice not working for some users, and the developer no longer updating the app, it is recommended to use Mac Media Key Forwarder. Mac Media Key Forwarder is a fork of the original and it is receiving updates. The fork is recommended by the original author.

Nevertheless, Beardedspice will still work fine for most people running on e.g. MacOS High Sierra, Mojave, Catalina, Big Sur, Monterey or Ventura so it remains an alternative.

Download and installation

It can be downloaded and installed directly from the Beardedspice homepage, or by using e.g. Homebrew:

brew install beardedspice

Notes

• Beardedspice supports controlling a vast amount of media players. Simply disable any unwanted players, while keeping Spotify enabled.

Answer 2

I find this problem happens for me inconsistently, so I use this fairly destructive approach when it happens:

1. Open up "Activity Monitor", which can be found easily using Spotlight
2. Select either "CPU" or "Memory" from the pills at the top of the dialog
3. In the search box, top right, type: itunes
4. "ituneshelper" is what you're looking for. Find it, click on it, then select "Force kill"
5. Accept the confirmation

Spotify also has a helper running. My guess is that it depends which one loads first.

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Permanent solution

Per comment below – you can simply remove it from your login items:

1. Search for 'Login Items' in System Preferences
2. Select itunes helper
3. Click [-] button
4. Restart your mac

Answer 3

Lifehacker ran an article about this very problem a while back for Snow Leopard. http://lifehacker.com/5531707/free-your-macs-media-keys-from-itunes-grasp

The tricks we used before were far less than ideal, requiring you to start up QuickTime in the background, or do some serious hacking to system files within iTunes.app. NoMitsu has created a one-click installer that patches the remote control daemon, the app responsible for managing the media keys. Just download the patch and double-click on it. After entering your password, your media keys will be free from iTunes' grasp.

I presume you have already tried this. As I recall the media keys will control the last program that was active so if Spotify was the last media app you had open (and is currently open) then the media keys will control that. Hope this helps you out.

Answer 4

I'v had this problem for years and in my case it goes beyond iTunes. When working in Keynote or another application that "claims" the media keys, controlling Spotify (or other music players) won't work.

But now I've finally solved it!

Quite a long process but here goes.

Binding Media keys to one Media player, and that player only:

• Go to system preferences > Keyboard > and select "Use all F1, F2, etc keys as standard function keys". (this will disable all quick controls like brightness, and volume) (To enable those again:)
• Download "Karabiner"
• Choose "Change F1..F19 Key & Function key..." > "Change F1..F19 Key" > "F1..F12 to Functional Key"
• Enable all but "F7, F8, F9 to music Controls" (unless you'd like to map any other keys to features of your choice) (now the brightness etc. should be working again)
• Download and install FastScripts
• Open Automator and create a new Service
• Change "service receives selected:" [text] to [no input]
• Add the "run apple script" action to the main screen
• Enter and save the following three apple scripts (for Spotify, but I'm sure this works with some other media players to) to the folder [your user]/Library/Scripts:

---

try
tell application "Spotify"
    playpause
end tell
end try
return

---

try
tell application "Spotify"
    previous track
end tell
end try
return

---

try
tell application "Spotify"
    next track
end tell
end try
return

• And finally in In FastScripts, go to "Script Shortcuts" and set F7, F8, and F9 as shortcuts for your scripts!

Easy as that! =)

EDIT: Karabiner does not yet work with Sierra, but a pre-release called "Karabiner Elements" does the trick. In that case, skip the first 4 steps in the above list and instead:

• Install Karabiner Elements
• Select Function keys and map f7>f7, f8>f8, f9>f9 (then continue from the list above by installing Fastscripts.)

Answer 5

After looking around for a while I finally found https://github.com/zsszatmari/MagicKeys

It is not specific to Spotify but will let you select any application to launch when a media key is pressed.

There are only 2 small issues I see with it (and one is also an issue with the default iTunes behavior).

1. It opens the application with any of the 3 media buttons. While this is what the original question requested, it is not the default behavior for iTunes. iTunes only opens when you press the play/pause button (not the back/forward buttons). Ideally this would be an option that the user could select.
2. It does not start the media playing after the application is launched. The same thing is also true with iTunes by default but it would be nice if you just had to press play once to open Spotify and start playing music rather than to press the key, wait for the app to start and then press the key again.

Answer 6

Settings>User & Groups>Login Items

• remove Itunes helper
• Add Spotify (check hide)

Restart your computer. It will always play Spotify since it's open in the background and not itunes.

Answer 7

Adding on to what @sjg said, you could have Spotify opened at startup (presuming that you don't care for iTunes to open at startup) so that you can have the media keys work with Spotify right from login. Again, this is only a workaround and not really a full solution, but if you want it to be opened at startup, go to Spotify>Preferences and scroll down to "Open Spotify automatically after you login to the computer" and select Open automatically.

Answer 8

You can go to your Applications library and manually delete iTunes.app in the terminal using:

sudo rm -rf /Applications/iTunes.app

Won't automatically make Spotify your default media player but iTunes will no longer exist on your computer.

Answer 9

As suggested in the comment by Beau Smith, the app BeardedSpice do an amazing job! Not only for Spotify but also for a lot of other services (Netflix, Youtube, SoundCloud, etc.)

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BeardedSpice is a menubar application for Mac OSX that allows you to control web based media players and some native apps with the media keys found on Mac keyboards. It is an extensible application that works with Chrome (Canary, Yandex, Chromium) and Safari, and can control any tab with an applicable media player.

Answer 10

a solution that worked for me for Mojave was to remove the execution bit from iTunes:

sudo chmod -x /Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunes

and optionally add the media player in question under

Preferences -> Security & privacy -> Accessibility

Answer 11

A quick update from March 2023, for anyone else who stumbled upon this post:

At time of typing, it looks like there hasn't been a new release of Beardedspice since June 2017.

Meanwhile, Milgra, the original author of MacMediaKeyForwarder, now recommends using the Quentinlesceller fork of his project (latest release April 2022): MacMediaKeyForwarded (fork).

I can confirm that MacMediaKeyForwarder fork (3.1.1) works flawlessly with Spotify in Monterey 12.6.3.

Answer 12

Here's how this should work:

1. Pressing a media key on your keyboard should send a message to the currently-active application, if it's one that supports media keys
2. If not, the most recently-active media-key-supporting application should be sent the message
3. If no application is available, open the default media-key-supporting application (e.g. iTunes, but configurable)
4. Each media-key-supporting application should have an opt-out in its preferences

It doesn't seem that difficult to me, yet this is one of those small usability flaws of OSX that sits on a pile of things that just serves to make the overall experience sub-par.

Answer 13

Is better going to User (Settings ->Users and Groups) and then click on "Startup items" and disable ituneshelper. By this way you don't need to kill the process every time you switch on the device.

Answer 14

I've created an easier implementation of Per's answer with BetterTouchTool.

1. Download BetterTouchTool (it has a 45 day free trial, afterwards its a one time purchase of $9).
2. Create a keyboard shortcut, bound to the Play/Pause key.
3. Optional: if you wish to open Spotify when its closed, add the following action (Apple Script (blocking)):

tell application "Spotify"
    if it is not running then launch
    set frontmost to true
    activate
end tell

4. Add an Apple Script (async in background) action:

using terms from application "Spotify"
    if player state of application "Spotify" is paused then
        tell application "Spotify" to play
    else
        tell application "Spotify" to pause
    end if
end using terms from

Answer 15

As of October 7, 2023, this is the easiest and working solution I have seen:

1. Install noTunes

2. Open the noTunes application and add it to Login Items

3. That's it! 🎉

4. (Optional) Open any application you want in replacement of iTunes/Music when you press the Play button

Answer 16

there is an option on the keyboard to either use the traditional F1, F2, etc keys, or the special features. Maybe you have selected the traditional mode.

Answer 17

Here is a bundle that works as a good solution:

https://github.com/rpendleton/spotify-rcd

Answer 18

No need to change libraries or programs or download tools. Everything you need is on hand and easy to use. The tip from 2007 still works: set with "Automator" what you want to do and asign it to a keyboard-shortcut.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/can-i-assign-f8-the-play-pause-key-to-launch-spotify-instead-of-itunes.1626645/#post-17779801

Answer 19

The keyboard buttons do not control iTunes (installed with Retroactive) in Catalina. They control the Music app instead.

Answer 20

Something that works most of the time for me is simply rebooting the program in question.

Say for instance Spotify is not playing nice with the media keys (i.e. they don't do anything when you have Spotify open). I usually quit Spotify and restart it and when it reopens the media keys automatically work again.

Obviously, this is less than ideal and definitely doesn't do anything to make Spotify the 'default' media key program, but it does act as a soft reset for the keys which can help until a better answer is created by Apple / Spotify.

Answer 21

Posting this April 3rd, 2020. Working perfectly well for me.

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I am using shpotify with skhd. To install shpotify (command line interface for Spotify):

brew install shpotify

No need to worry about Spotify API if prompted - that is optional if you want to be able to choose tracks from the command line; play/pause, and volume settings work out of the box. Then installing skhd (amazing shortcut manager for OSX):

brew install koekeishiya/formulae/skhd
brew services start skhd

Then head over to the file ~/.skhdrc which is the configuration file for skhd and add the following:

# Spotify
fn - f8 : spotify pause
fn - f11 : spotify vol down
fn - f12 : spotify vol up

This will map your FN+Play/Pause, FN+Volume Up, and FN+Volume Down to Spotify specifically. Pressing any of those keys while Spotify is closed will automatically open it.

The added benefit of using this method is that you can control Spotify when it's playing both on your computer or an external device (i.e. Google Home), and allows more flexibility when pausing Spotify (i.e. when you open a video on the browser and OSX automatically maps the Play/Pause to the video as opposed to music playing in the background by Spotify).